THE ARTISTIC TYPE: A BLOG OF THEATER, ARTS AND CULTURE

"Science and math were a mystery to me," she says. "I couldn't connect to it."

But today Gillman routinely deals with science — even though she's a college professor in the theater department.

"Science plays," which explore scientific discovery or science-related issues, are a growing part of the theatrical repertoire. High-profile examples include Berthold Brecht's "Galileo," which examines the conflict between belief and scientific discovery, and Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," which considers the nature of evidence in scientific research.

This week, Orlando's Mad Cow Theatre will present its first Science Play Festival, and Gillman is in town to lead it.

It was the theater that eventually made science attractive to Gillman, 52, a professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va.

"It was just amazing to me that scientific ideas came to life in a play," she says. "All these scientific and mathematic concepts I'd never grasped came alive."

These days, she is known in theatrical circles as an expert on science plays. She has given presentations at theater-association conferences and written articles on the subject. But her passion remains introducing theatergoers to these stories.

"These plays open the door to the laboratory and invite the audience in," she says.

And she stresses that the plays are more than lectures or history lessons. They deal with complex people, family dynamics, conflict and discovery — the subjects that make great theater, she says.

"Science offers all kinds of new material — new concepts to explore. It's a way to enter a world and tell these really engrossing stories," Gillman says. "It's a joy for me to share these worlds with audiences.

For the festival, Mad Cow has lined up a who's who of local actors and directors, including Marty Stonerock, Jay Becker, Becky Eck, Bobbie Bell and Robin Olson.

For performers, part of the appeal of the plays comes from building a bridge between the arts and sciences, Gillman says.

"Both scientists and artists use a creative process," she says. "We have a lot more in common than people think."

Science Play Festival

• What: Four readings, each followed by a discussion led by scientific and artistic experts

• The Plays:"An Experiment with an Air Pump," which mixes medical ethics and a detective story spanning 200 years (7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10).

"A Short History of Nearly Everything," a fast-paced discussion among Newton, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin, designed for young theatergoers (1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11).

"Photograph 51," about the often-overlooked role of British scientist Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of DNA's double-helix structure. The play delves into how Franklin succeeded in a field dominated by men (7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11).